The Platform Group AG (ETR:TPG) Looks Inexpensive After Falling 29% But Perhaps Not Attractive Enough

Unfortunately for some shareholders, the The Platform Group AG (ETR:TPG) share price has dived 29% in the last thirty days, prolonging recent pain. The drop over the last 30 days has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 26% in that time.

Although its price has dipped substantially, Platform Group's price-to-earnings (or "P/E") ratio of 2.6x might still make it look like a strong buy right now compared to the market in Germany, where around half of the companies have P/E ratios above 18x and even P/E's above 35x are quite common. Although, it's not wise to just take the P/E at face value as there may be an explanation why it's so limited.

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Platform Group certainly has been doing a good job lately as it's been growing earnings more than most other companies. One possibility is that the P/E is low because investors think this strong earnings performance might be less impressive moving forward. If you like the company, you'd be hoping this isn't the case so that you could potentially pick up some stock while it's out of favour.

See our latest analysis for Platform Group

If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report on Platform Group.

How Is Platform Group's Growth Trending?

Platform Group's P/E ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver very poor growth or even falling earnings, and importantly, perform much worse than the market.

If we review the last year of earnings growth, the company posted a worthy increase of 9.0%. Still, EPS has barely risen at all in aggregate from three years ago, which is not ideal. Accordingly, shareholders probably wouldn't have been overly satisfied with the unstable medium-term growth rates.

Turning to the outlook, the next three years should generate growth of 1.5% per annum as estimated by the eight analysts watching the company. That's shaping up to be materially lower than the 17% each year growth forecast for the broader market.

With this information, we can see why Platform Group is trading at a P/E lower than the market. It seems most investors are expecting to see limited future growth and are only willing to pay a reduced amount for the stock.

What We Can Learn From Platform Group's P/E?

Platform Group's P/E looks about as weak as its stock price lately. Typically, we'd caution against reading too much into price-to-earnings ratios when settling on investment decisions, though it can reveal plenty about what other market participants think about the company.

As we suspected, our examination of Platform Group's analyst forecasts revealed that its inferior earnings outlook is contributing to its low P/E. At this stage investors feel the potential for an improvement in earnings isn't great enough to justify a higher P/E ratio. It's hard to see the share price rising strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

There are also other vital risk factors to consider before investing and we've discovered 1 warning sign for Platform Group that you should be aware of.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with a strong growth track record, trading on a low P/E.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.